Documenting the War: The Poetics of Time and Space in Contemporary Ukrainian Literature

Abstract

This article examines the poetics of time and space in contemporary Ukrainian prose, which reflects on the experience of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The starting point is the shift in literary perspectives after 2014, when war ceased to be a peripheral topic and became a central determinant of identity, ethical choice, and cultural memory. The study focuses on the work of Volodymyr Vakulenko-K., Nadiya Sukhorukova, Boris Humeniuk, and Artur Dron, who represent diverse forms of war experience—from civilian resistance to direct participation on the front. The analysis is conducted through the lens of chronotopic models developed in extreme conditions: occupation, siege, and the front line. These texts demonstrate the degradation of conventional temporality, the emergence of alternative chronologies (such as the "occupation calendar" or "frozen time"), and the transformation of space—from the private to the sacred, from the geographical to the symbolic. Particular attention is paid to the trench as a liminal space where moral choices are made and where eternity is revealed within the framework of concrete time and suffering. The article also draws parallels between the Ukrainian experience and English-language studies of temporality and the perception of space during war (Beryl Pong, Warwick Smith), revealing universal mechanisms for literary encounters with war as a liminal experience.